Sites of the week

July 7…My Dad turned 70!!
July 8…Ellie turned 2 and our friends welcomed a baby girl
Today, July 10…Tony’s Auntie’s Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY {GREAT} AUNTIE PATTI a.k.a. Auntie Weirdest! This is a card that I made for her special day…

I brought out a slew {ok, 4} of Inque Boutique stamps from The Purple Turtle Stamp Shoppe to make this card. This is the second card that I have used Jazzy Punctuation on. Susan was over when I was making this and we were laughing about how we love brackets. We have no idea what the appeal is, but we love ‘em. You know me…if you add some polka dots to it, it’s even sweeter! For the mini calendar with the cake marking today, I used the Build A Calendar set. Cute, huh? The 100% Original {I did say “Auntie Weirdest”} stamp comes from the Build A Tag mini set. This set reminds me of the SU! Set, Stamp Of Authenticity…except this one is only $3.99!! The fourth and final set that I used was Retro Shapes. I got this set because I love how girly it is and how I can use it to make backgrounds, like I did here. As for the final touches on this card, I crazy stitched the left side of the Spring Moss and Berry Sorbet (Papertrey colors} panel. That yummy ribbon is from May Arts and I have finally started to use it a little. The right side of the card is embossed with the Bloom Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder. Don’tcha love that polka dotted brad in the center of that Prima?!? I had to go get “extras” of these so I would quit hoarding the ones that I already had…now that is BAAAD!

See you tomorrow with a little “trick” that I use!

Stamps: Inque Boutique
Paper: Kraft, Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet {Papertrey Ink}; Basic Black, Whisper White {SU!}
Ink: Berry Sorbet {Papertrey Ink}, Basic Black {SU!}
Other: Ribbon {May Arts}, Brads {Making Memories}, Flowers {Prima}, Eyelets, Sewing Machine, Dimensional Glue Dots, Punches

As Ellie celebrated her second birthday yesterday, a friend of ours welcomed a new baby girl into this world. I absolutely {HEART} making baby cards, and it’s even better when you have a friend to give it to. I love baby stamps {imagine that!!}, so when I saw this set from Papertrey Ink, my heart was all a flutter. For the main image, I chose the onsie and I stamped it on some K & Co. paper that I picked up at Target. The base of the card and ribbon is Papertrey’s Plum Pudding. This is quickly becoming one of my fave colors of all time…and that says A LOT! Our wedding color was purple and after our wedding I swore off purple. Turns out it takes about 5 years to get over color hatred. LOL! For the finishing touches on this card I used a cute little bootie charm that I picked up at Hobby Lobby for 50cents. I also stitched around the bottom checked layer. I think that you can tell that I am “fairly” detail oriented and I can’t stand if my straight stitching ends up crooked. So to avoid that, I just crooked sew…on purpose. I usually go around twice to make it a little more fun, too.

Detail shot…

I can’t believe that Ellie is TWO already!! I swear it was yesterday when I called Tony home from work at just after 8 (yes, he just got there) to tell him that it was time. That was actually the 7th. At 2:39 am on July 8th Elena “Ellie” made her debut. If you are doing the math, add a few more hours for when my water broke the night before calling Tony home. That’s 29 hours total!!!…after my doctor told me not to hold my breath on her being born anytime soon. Today I can officially call her my terrible 2 year old…in the most loving way possible, of course. We have a little party planned for her on Saturday and I will certainly have pictures to share. For now, here is her {over the top, more may not be more here, it’s for a 2 year old} card…

Stamps: Faux Ribbon {Papertrey Ink}
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black {Tsukineko}
Paper: DP {American Crafts}; Plum Pudding {Papertrey Ink}; Pretty In Pink {SU!}
Other: Cuttlebug Dies, “2″ Chipboard {SU!}; Rose Quartz Glitter {Martha Stewart}; Crystal Flowers {Heidi Swapp}; Plum Pudding Twill {Papertrey Ink}

Don’t forget, today is TCP Tuesday!

I haven’t gotten my card done for the challenge {insert plea for more hours in day here}, but be sure to see all the deets on Leigh’s blog.

I give up! I used to subscribe to the “less is more” way of thinking, but you know what? It turns out that more actually is more. LOL! This card started out without the bottom DP layer and no circle punches with brads. It is B-O-R-I-N-G…according to me at least. Susan was over here when I was putting it together and I told her that I was just about ready to give up on it. It turns out that the more stuff I took out and added to it, the better it got!…imagine that! LOL!
I used 2 different Papertrey sets here. The tree is from Father Knows Best and the sentiment is from Out on a Limb. I used a 1 3/4″ circle punch for the sentiment. It barely fit in there. Actually, it didn’t. I had to chop of the comma at the end of the second line. I guess no grammar gurus are gonna be getting this one. For my finishing touches I added the circles on the right side, that are topped off with brads. I also tied 5/8″ Olive grosgrain ribbon {SU!} around the leafy DP panel. I have to tell you that ribbon is probably my favorite…well, in the top 3 at least! The tree panel and the scallop circle panel are also popped up on dimensional glue dots. I think I have already said this, but here I go repeating myself… I MUCH prefer the dimensional glue dots to the SU! dimensionals. Like the SU! dimensionals, you can cut them down when needed. All you have to do it fold the wax paper over the glue dot, so it has paper on both sides and then cut through it with SHARP scissors. The glue dots also give your cards a lot more POP than the SU! glue dots. Don’t get me wrong, I have a slew of the SU! product because I like having options, but I am stickin’ to my dots. That being said, Jody has had shares for the SU! style made from red-line material and they ROCK {and will eventually replace the SU! product that I currently have}.
Anywhooooo….enough yipyap for one day. Here’s the card…

Stamps: Father Knows Best, Out On A Limb (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip (SU!)
Paper: Father Knows Best (Papertrey Ink); Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White (SU!)
Other: Circle Punches, Scallop Circle Punch, Brads, Ribbon

Happy Friday the 13th! Anyone believe in the unlucky day? I was born on August 13th and when people hear that I was born on the 13th, many ask if I was born on a Friday. I find that quite amusing. For the record, no I wasn’t and no, I don’t really believe in the unluckiness of the day.

Last Saturday I promised a blog tart to a random participant of last week’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY. Drumroll please for…

#37 Leigh Anne Baird. You can see her cute iPodabella creation HERE.

Leigh Ann…please email me all your info {link under my pic}

Well, it’s Friday and that means ABC…Anything But a Card. Last night I opened my alterables cabinet…nuthin’…no divine inspiration, no projects just begging to be done…nuthin’. I tried to force it with a tin, and it just wasn’t working for me. I guess my mojo is running on “E” just a bit. I have been working on LOTS of fun projects to show you in about a week, plus getting ready for my Copic class tonight. So instead of making some big and altered project, I made something that my mojo could work with…an ATC. An ATC is an Artist Trading Card. They are 2.5″ x 3.5″ and lots of fun to make. HERE is the tutorial that I wrote for SCS. In the past I have hosted HUGE ATC swaps, but that last couple were so tedious that I have not done one in some time. I do host one from time to time on the MFT Forum. Here is the ATC I made to show you today…

This ATC uses the set Garden of Life designed by Alli Miles for Papertrey Ink. I got a chance to meet Alli at CHA in February and she is just the sweetest. It’s very exciting to see a friend’s designs come to life and it’s even more fun to play with them.
I stamped the flowers with Brilliance Graphite Black ink and then colored them in with Copic markers. The stems and leaves were stamped with SU! Old Olive. When making an ATC, I make it a standard to use at least one embellishment. For this ATC, I used black satin ribbon. The sentiment is also up on dimensional glue dots, which could be considered an embellishment.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. As always, I’ll be here tomorrow with another Sketch For You To Try. See ya then!